Cell utilization estimation by a wireless device

A wireless user equipment (UE) device, the UE comprising:

• a radio, comprising one or more antennas configured for wireless communication;
• and
• a processing element operatively coupled to the radio;
• wherein the radio and the processing element are configured to:
• measure a plurality of physical layer metrics according to a cellular communication technology;
• receive an indication to estimate load on a serving cell of the UE;
• filter the plurality of physical layer metrics over a predetermined period of time based on the indication to estimate load on the serving cell;
• estimate a time-averaged total cell utilization of the serving cell based at least in part on the filtered plurality of physical layer metrics;
• and
• subtract a time-averaged serving cell resource utilization by the UE from the time-averaged total cell utilization of the serving cell to estimate a time-averaged cell load of the serving cell exclusive of serving cell resource utilization by the UE.

A non-transitory computer accessible memory medium comprising program instructions which, when executed at a wireless user equipment (UE) device, cause the UE device to implement a method for estimating loading of a serving cell of the UE in an LTE cellular network, comprising:

• measuring a plurality of physical layer metrics of a channel according to which the UE communicates with the serving cell;
• estimating total cell utilization of the serving cell based on the measured physical layer metrics;
• and
• estimating a maximum available throughput of the serving cell based at least in part on the estimated total cell utilization.